1920s Traveler Delighted In Central Florida Landscape

Seminole's past

Mattie K. Cook kept a diary during the more than two weeks she rode in a three-car caravan from New Harmony, Ind., to a new home in Sanford.

Barry Revels of Altamonte Springs has kept a copy of his great-grandmother's journey.

These soon-to-be Floridians passed through Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee in one day -- Friday, June 23, 1922.

"Mr. [Bob] West discovered today how to stop his cylinders from pumping oil; that is, by letting her go dry!"

Repairs were made at a Memphis campground where one traveler, young Lyman, spotted a "nice-looking woman," according to the diary.

"Lyman and Mr. West got so excited, they tried to run up the bluff bank. She kindly informed them there was a drive-way down the road a short distance, so they found the road, circled the speedway, and made their way back to the same woman to ask more unimportant questions."

A Saturday trip into Memphis included a visit to the city's zoo. The highlight was a bear that would stand and beg for peanuts.

"Jesse, Ruth, Babo and I went downtown in the car that night, and we thought it was very beautify, all lite up."

The next day's ride along dusty roads out of Memphis left them caked in dirt, so they camped next to a stream to bathe.

Just over the Alabama line, Bob West's car blew a tire. Almost immediately after it was repaired, it went flat again. A trip to town was needed for a new tube.

Then, Cook writes, "We hit one of those modern bridges we have found so often in Mississippi bottom-land. We busted up the dust pan on the Studebaker. You should have heard the racket. It sounded like the New Harmony fire whistle."

Their next camp was a church and cemetery. A Ford "with two pretty girls" stalled on the road, capturing the men's attention. "Well, what amused us was those old married men falling all over each other trying to crank that Ford."

The young men would save the day on June 28 by making a new spark plug out of two old ones to get the Studebaker running on all cylinders again. The days would carry them past "beautiful water falls and streams running over rocks" and through the strip mines of the iron ore and coal countryside.

They also drove through sawmill towns: "All neat little rough lumber houses, unpainted but clean and homey with their little pot flowers."

They camped at Blackwarrior River, 40 miles from their next big town, Birmingham. The brakes would fail on Jesse's car on the steep Red Top Mountain, sending him crashing into Lyman's car. They pulled the cars apart and let Jesse coast down the hill to the next garage.

Through the four hours of mending and bending, Cook sat with her three children with Mrs. West and her kids. While in town, the men went to a barber for shaves and haircuts that seemed to make them feel better.

They made better time through the pine forest, traveling 108 miles in a day, celebrating with a supper of fried chicken, tripe, fried potatoes and roasted ears of corn.

Passing from Alabama into Georgia, they "saw lots of things that were new to us. We saw sulphur factories and great piles of sulphur laying out in the open. The air was laden with the odor." On Sunday, July 2, they made their best time, 123 miles and "lots of magnolias and palms and beautiful flowers, and peach and pecan orchards."

"We are camping tonight in a pine forest. It is a very pretty place, and when the wind blows through the trees, you just want to listen and think."

The caravan crossed into Florida at 1:30 p.m. on Monday. "We are all very favorably impressed with it so far."

In the fields, they saw melons, corn, peanuts, peaches, pears and pecans.

"Everything looks good. We see a world of Spanish moss. Josh says he is going to get some and make him a bed tonight."

On Monday, they traveled through more pine forests "with most every tree tapped for resin."

They reached Gainesville the following day, despite a driving rain and rough roads. "Gainesville is a university town and is a beautiful place; has many fine buildings, homes and trees."

Aside from getting the Studebaker stuck in a mudhole, the journey into Central Florida's rolling citrus country was a pleasant surprise.

"It would be impossible to describe either the beauty or our feelings toward it," she writes. "Somehow, we all felt like we had gotten home. We passed through miles and miles of grapefruit and orange groves."

They camped in a grove on a lake just a few miles from Sanford.

They pitched their tents that night, but the next night they stayed at the railroad's PICO Hotel. A few days later, they moved into a house at Third Street and French Avenue.